The Diet of A Genius: What Fed Albert Einstein's Brilliant Mind

Albert Einstein is the wonderfully eccentric German that developed the theory of relativity and the most famous equation ever written: E=mc2. 

He also helped to lay the foundation for modern quantum theory, win a Nobel Prize, hold 50 patents including one for a refrigerator, camera, and an electromagnetic pump. And he did all this whilst being a father of three, a husband, and becoming synonymous with the word "genius."

But what fed his genius mind? What stimulated those little neurons in his brain to fire and wire so well together? What was he eating? And more importantly - Can we eat what he was eating to also experience the same results? 

Come on! I know that you were thinking about it. 

So, let's give ourselves permission to be silly and curious for a while. After all, even Einstein himself said, "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious."

So, let's be passionately curious too. Let's see what a genius used to eat along with his other loves in life to indulge ourselves in the life of a true great for a while.

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

Einstein's favourite food 

Underwhelmingly, it turns out that a genius loves fried or scrambled eggs with toast or rolls in the mornings just like the rest of us. However, not everyone loved them as much as Albert Einstein did. He famously didn't just stop at one, he loved nothing more than to gobble down two every morning. The only person that I've seen come close to that is my beautiful South African lover but I can vouch from that, that eggs don't make a genius. So, let's continue on. 

Accompanying his morning eggs, it's said that he also used to eat so much honey that his domestic staff used to buy him it in the bucket load. So, maybe sweetness is the answer to unlocking our creative genius? 

And even if it's not, I'm down to give it a go when it comes to honey!  

What were his other favourites?

Einstein's other favourite foods that he liked to indulge in included egg drop soup (it's not as weird when you learn that it's just a Chinese soup of wispy beaten eggs in chicken broth). He also loved salmon, mayonnaise, cold cuts, asparagus (it's good to see at least one green on the list), pork with sweet chestnuts (fancy), and strawberry meringue.

Apparently, he liked his meat well done too, proclaiming to his in-house cook, "I am not a tiger." 

Any clues to genius there? Not that I can see. 

His favourite fruit was strawberries but I can rule that one out as it's also mine too so I can confirm strawberries are not the source of genius. And his favorite dessert was orange cake. No comment there. 

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Albert Einstein was normally a man whose word demanded trust, truth, and exploration. However, ironically when it came to dietary requirements, he was a little hypocritical; He didn't always follow his own advice. 

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." 

Great advice! Although he himself never partook in such a diet, at least not until much later on in life. 

Maybe his love of egg drop soup was just too tempting… 

Albert Einstein's other lovers  

Aside from food, family, and physics, Einstein's other lover in life was music. 

Mozart continued to be his favorite composer, along with Bach, and they stayed with me for the rest of his life. He also had a not-so-secret love affair with multiple violins all named Lina (his nickname for the instrument). 

It's been said that he would love to surprise Halloween trick-or-treaters with serenades on his 'Lina' of the time, and would even join carolling groups at Christmas.

I can romantically picture him putting his slippered feet up after such a jewel, smoking on his pipe and delighting in the foolishness of it all. 

Closing thoughts 

Following in the footsteps of a genius seems to entail studying the vastness of the universe whilst simultaneously enjoying the delicacies of life. Delicacies such as strawberries, orange cake, and eggs in the morning. It also appears that one must not always follow one's own advice (this one did come as quite a relief, I'm not going to lie). 

So, in short, and upon deeper reflection, there is no blueprint for becoming a genius after all. As it turns out, 

"The only real valuable thing is intuition." 

As Albert Einstein likes to remind us all of.